Dismissed ActionSA councillors still in shock after being booted during council meeting.
Several former ActionSA councillors in the City of Johannesburg have threatened to intensify their legal action against the party if they are not reinstated.
These councillors were dismissed for allegedly failing to meet their performance targets, which include ensuring that they sign up 200 people as new members of the party.
Their spokesperson, Elmari Atterbury, told The Citizen that the matter was supposed to be heard in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday. But the party and their lawyers had decided that engagements should take place outside the courtroom.
“The court case was to interdict ActionSA to stop the process of employing or appointing new councillors in our positions while this dispute is ongoing,” said Atterbury.
“Before this court action, two cease and desist letters were sent to ActionSA. We really had no choice but to take them to court,” she said.
Last month, the party fired the councillors for allegedly failing to meet the KPAs. But Atterbury told The Citizen that the process of monitoring their performance is flawed.
“We signed the assessment sheets. That is the contract that we signed. But the way that ActionSA is explaining this is incorrect. You are given a score out of 5, which is the highest number, and if you reach 200 plus members, then you get a 5; otherwise you will get a 4 or a 1. For me, I had 149, but they still said I am underperforming,” she said.
Taking food out of their mouths without warning
Atterbury said on 29 September, the group of councillors were attending a council meeting when they were informed that they no longer had jobs.
“It was a shock and, second of all, very embarrassing. I say ‘shock’ because we thought, at the very least, there would be a hearing and we thought we would sit down with someone and have a conversation.
“It was terrible for caucus in general because everyone was under stress to the point that we had to call for caucus breaks to inform everyone.
“It was not pleasant,” she said.
Atterbury described their dismissal as the party taking food out of their mouths without any warning.
“If you are removed as a councillor, it means your income stops immediately, and these 200 memberships have nothing to do with the work of a councillor. It is important to bring members into the party but not at the cost of the residents,” she said.
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Can this relationship be saved?
Atterbury said she has been a member of the party for five years.
She said she still wants to continue with her activism for the party, despite tensions with the leadership of the party over this issue.
“I have put in a lot of my own money, my own effort into this, and to just be disregarded like this; it’s a slap in the face,” she said.
‘Such people have stolen public money’
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba told The Citizen that the group had the right to take the matter to court, but he remained resolute in his decision to dismiss them.
“They have the right to go to court; we cannot stop them from exercising their right, and we also have a constitutional right to defend ourselves.
“As far as we are concerned, nothing stops us from going ahead with the appointment of new councillors,” he said.
Mashaba said Johannesburg is one of three metros where councillors were fired for poor performance. He said it is the party’s duty to hold councillors to account.
“South Africans cannot just pay councillors to attend council meetings, and they do not do anything for them. So should South Africa accept those kinds of people? They cannot claim that I have taken food out of their mouths.
“As far as I am concerned, such people have stolen public money,” he said.
Mashaba said he has evidence that the councillors were given time to improve their performance.
Will all councillors be taken back?
An aggrieved councillor claimed on Tuesday to have been reinstated after negotiations between legal teams. This has not been confirmed by ActionSA.
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